1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cable connector for electrically connecting one ends of cables to a wiring board.
2. Description of the Related Art
A cable connector is used in practice for electrically connecting electric parts with each other in the interior of an electronic apparatus. For example, the electric parts are electrically connected to a printed circuit board via a flexible printed circuit board (FPC) or a flexible flat cable (FFC). There are a rotary type and a slide type in the cable connector used in practice, which are different in a method for fixing a cable. As disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2001-357920, Japanese Patent Nos. 3579827 and 2692055 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2002-289284, the rotary type cable connector includes a connector body disposed on a printed circuit board and having a cable accommodating section, a plurality of contact terminals provided in the cable accommodating section of the connector body, for electrically connecting an electrode part of the printed circuit board to a terminal section of a flexible printed circuit board, and an actuator member supported in a rotatable manner relative to the connector body, to be attachable to and/or detachable from contact points in the contact terminals of the terminal section in the flexible printed circuit board.
The connector body has, at one end thereof, an inserting port for allowing the terminal section of the flexible printed circuit board to be connected thereto. The inserting port is communicated to a cable accommodating section formed in the interior of the connector body. In a cut portion forming a top of the cable accommodating section in the connector body, opposite ends of a proximal part of the actuator member are supported in a rotatable manner. The actuator member occupies either a locked state in which the terminal section of the flexible printed circuit board is sandwiched between a pressing surface and a movable terminal section of the respective contact terminal at a predetermined position or an unlocked state in which the terminal section of the flexible printed circuit board is released. In the locked state, a site of action of the actuator member is closer to the terminal section of the flexible printed circuit board and generally parallel thereto. On the other hand, in the unlocked state, the actuator member opens the cut portion on the top of the cable accommodating section so that the site of action of the actuating member is separated from the flexible printed circuit board to intersect with a plane in which the terminal section of the circuit board is formed to be rotatable until the site of action abuts to a wall surface forming the above-mentioned cut portion of the connector body. Accordingly, to attach or detach the flexible printed circuit board when the actuator member is in the unlocked state, it is desired that the rotational angle of the actuator member is determined to be relatively large to obtain a large opening of the above-mentioned inserting port so that the attachment/detachment of the flexible printed circuit board becomes easier.
The actuator member has a pressing surface for pushing a back surface of the flexible printed circuit board toward the contact points of the contact terminals described later, while bringing the latter into contact with an end of a part of the actuator member opposed to the cable accommodating section.
A plurality of contact terminals are arranged in the cable accommodating section in correspondence to the arrangement of the terminal section in the electrode part of the flexible printed circuit board. Each of these contact terminals includes a fixed terminal portion soldered to the terminal portion of the printed circuit board, a fixed portion, a movable terminal portion, and a coupling portion for connecting the fixed terminal portion to the fixed portion and the movable terminal portion.
A front end of the fixed portion of the respective contact terminal is arranged to be opposed to a concavity formed in the actuator member. The movable terminal portion has, at its front end, a contact point to be electrically connected to the electrode section of the flexible printed circuit board.
A coupling section thereof is-fixed to the connector body by being press-fit to a slit formed adjacent to a cable accommodating section.
In such a structure, the terminal section of the flexible printed circuit board is electrically connected to the contact point of the respective contact terminal in the following manner. After the terminal section of the flexible printed circuit board is inserted into a position in the vicinity of a rear wall defining a rear side of the cable accommodating section through an inserting port, a front end of the actuator member is made to rotate such that a predetermined locked state is obtained. Accordingly, the terminal section of the flexible printed circuit board contacts the contact terminal of the movable terminal portion in the contact terminal and is held there, creating a reliabel electric connection. At that time, the terminal section of the flexible printed circuit board is sandwiched between the pressing surface of the actuator member and the elastically deformed movable terminal portion of the respective contact terminal.